


4 Times Stone Met Tom And Didn't Know It

by EstelleDusk



Series: Stobotnik but they don't say it [3]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Genre: Fluff, THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED, and taking care of Bot while he's at it, crappy motel fic, mostly its just Stone not realizing he's met Tom, there's only like a hint of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:12:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25974205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EstelleDusk/pseuds/EstelleDusk
Summary: New mission meant road trip, and road trip meant crappy motels to sleep in.Would you believe Stone lives for the crappy motels? Even though it means the Doctor keeps sending him on random errands in the middle of the night.
Relationships: Dr. Eggman | Dr. Robotnik & Agent Stone, Dr. Eggman | Dr. Robotnik/Agent Stone (if you squint)
Series: Stobotnik but they don't say it [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1692025
Comments: 5
Kudos: 37





	4 Times Stone Met Tom And Didn't Know It

“Room for one, please. Just tonight, thanks.” Not that Stone expected the Doctor to actually sleep, but it was still better for the attempt of sleep to happen on an actual bed and not a chair or the floor. Again.

He took the key and went off to find the Doctor before finding the room. Hopefully, Robotnik did as Stone had demanded and put the badniks to sleep while grabbing a change of clothes. But did he think that actually happened in the time he was away from the mobile lab? No, not really.

A short drive back, and Stone sighed at the scene, small smile on his face. He was dancing again, this time while nursing a bottled frappuccino one of the other agents must have grabbed for him. Robotnik tended to only drink coffee fresh if Stone made it, not trusting that anyone else _wouldn’t_ take the opportunity to poison him.

He didn’t interrupt his boss, instead he went around the lab. There’s the nightbag Stone tried to keep painstakingly packed, despite Robotnik constantly claiming he needed something from it and turning it inside out every other day to never find whatever he looked for. Nightshirt, sleeping mask, toiletries, fidget cube; all accounted for. Stone carefully urged the badniks, sluggishly hovering around, back into their charging docks, making sure each one was actually charging.

Only once Stone had made sure everything was done that needed to be done, did he interrupt his Doctor. Wide smile, hands folded in front, nightbag on his shoulder. “Doctor, we’re ready to go.”

“Agent Stone! The song’s not over, sit your ass down and wait... wait, where’s Rocky? They were just here!”

“Rocky is in the charging bay with the others. Your song has 20 seconds left. Wouldn’t it be cool to walk out on the last note?”

Robotnik paused, mind whirring quietly before he grinned and made his way over to the door, singing along with the end of the song. Just as he stepped out the door, the song ended. In the short lull between songs, Stone ordered the computer to stop playing, and the mobile lab to lockdown until their return.

The agent quickly returned to the Doctor’s side and led him to the correct agency car to get into. The other agents were parked around the mobile lab, ensuring no one could enter or leave the circle of protection without one of them knowing. But they all knew Stone would get to drive away, they’ve done this enough times.

Both the man and his weapons were important assets, so they were split up at night. If someone managed to take out one, at the very least the other would still be safe. It was why Stone and the Doctor were so close, the others were charged to Robotnik’s command, yes, but they were also charged to protect the technology with their lives whenever Robotnik and Stone weren’t around.

Stone was the only one the Doctor trusted enough to watch over him when his badniks and himself slept. And he took that duty seriously, taking naps while the sun still shone and he knew the badniks were active, just so he could stay up the whole night to ensure his Doctor’s safety.

Stone drove them back to the motel, parking behind the building. He quietly led Robotnik to his room, the Doctor was still nursing his bedtime coffee, staring at everything and muttering insults about the motel’s aesthetics. Stone hid a smile, doing his best to focus on his job. Protect the Doctor from even a tiny spider.

While Stone and Robotnik snuck in the back, neither noticed the truck pulling up in the front of the motel, nor the way the man tried to keep the excited child from yelling in the middle of the night.

Stone made sure his Doctor was settled in, coat hung up, shoes off to the side. It was the most he could easily demand of the man without having to fight for it. Then he set out everything that had been in the bag, pajamas set on top of the heater, toiletries set by the sink, fidget cube innocently set on the bedside table, next to a lit lamp. Quiet suggestions, obvious ones, but not so much demands.

“Stone.” Robotnik eyed the TV, gloved fingers twitching before he shoved them in his pockets and forced his eyes to the ceiling.

“Yes, Doctor?” Stone put down his own jacket and loosened his tie, making sure to untuck his shirt just enough to look carelessly ruffled. He pulled hidden weapons off his person while he slipped into the guise of a well-dressed drunkard.

“Get me whatever passes for coffee in this dump.” At the words, Stone paused his motions, glancing around the room to make sure he hadn’t missed a coffee maker in his first check of the room. He hadn’t, there was nothing besides a mini-fridge, a likely empty ice bucket, and a few cups. There was nothing to make coffee.. And the Doctor wouldn’t have missed that.

He was purposefully sending him out.

Stone glanced at the TV and suddenly knew without a doubt that the electronic wouldn’t survive the night. He’ll leave a tip at the desk, enough to cover the cost and the possible mess and burns. He should have checked the Doctor’s pockets before leaving the lab, hopefully he didn’t squirrel away a lighter or a blowtorch, although, hopefully, Stone believed he would recognize the outline of a blowtorch shoved down the man’s pants.

“Anything else, Doctor?” He smiled at his outlandish Doctor and prayed there would be nothing else. At the older man’s distracted wave, Stone checked himself in the mirror and left.

Coffee. 

Preferably a latte.

At nearly midnight.

Homemade if he can find it.

Mass-produced, sealed, and poison checked if he can’t.

Oh, the things he does for this man.

Closing the door behind him, Stone excused himself as he nearly ran into a man, correction, a father that lost his kid if that high pitched voice in the distance means anything. Stone smiled and gestured behind him, “I think they went that way.”

“Oh my god, thank you, excuse me. Kiddo! You better not be going to the pool, it’s 11 pm!”

“Uhhhh! No?” Came the same high pitched voice before an obvious splash of water said otherwise.

Stone shook his head with a smile, there was just something about little moments like that, that would remind him of Robotnik and the badniks sometimes. Albeit, normally the badniks responded in a series of chirps and tunes that were near impossible to understand unless you knew the context for each beep. They also didn’t normally straight-up lie to the Doctor.

Right, coffee.

Stone wandered the motel, looking for somewhere to purchase a drink from, occasionally checking his phone to make sure Robotnik’s vital signs were the same as when he left the room. When 20 minutes passed and he still hadn’t found even a _kitchen_ to steal away inside, he went to the vending machine he passed 15 minutes prior.

It was better than nothing, and he had already been gone for much too long.

Returning to the motel room, he held back a sigh as he looked at his charge.

And the blowtorch he had somehow managed to hide on his person.

“Your coffee, Doctor.”

Robotnik paused in the middle of his dismantling of the TV, not showing even an ounce of shame at being caught doing something he must have known was not allowed. His goggles reflected the crappy lighting as he lifted them off his eyes and grinned at Stone.

“Good! Very good, Agent, now… I need ice, lots of it.”

Which means he’s already burnt himself. This time Stone did sigh. And he did grab the ice bucket and go right back out, after making sure the Doctor saw him open the bottled coffee and take a sip.

Maybe it’s a good thing he hadn’t yet changed into his pajamas? They’d surely be burnt as well by now.

On his way to the ice machine by the pool, he saw that father again, wrapping towel after towel around his child, quietly arguing about something. Stone’s heart clenched at the sight, glad that there was at least one father and child out there that seemed like they weren’t in a crappy family relationship.

He couldn’t stop himself, after filling the bucket with ice, he called out to them. “You should listen to your father, kid.”

They stopped arguing and stared at him a minute, long enough for Stone to see that the kid had not only jumped in the pool at 11 o’clock at night but also while wearing some sort of costume.

“I will, Ice Man!” The child yelled back while the father just waved kindly, obviously embarrassed.

Ice Man… did the child call him that simply because of the ice he was holding? Huh, that’s kind of funny. And definitely new. He’s used to the other agents calling him Latte Man or something similar.

When Stone returned this time to the motel room, the TV had been put back together and was playing a channel he was 600% sure he didn’t have when they arrived. And the Doctor was in the shower; the pajamas were missing from on top of the heater, he could only hope that meant the toiletries would be used to.

It seemed like maybe tonight would be an easy night and at least one of them would sleep.

The Doctor popping his head out of the bathroom, still fully dressed yet the shower having been on for some minutes now, told Stone otherwise. Stone handed him the ice and waited for the next nonsense item he’d be sent for.

“Stone! I need you to get me as many towels as possible! The water pressure on this shower is shit, I can’t shower in this!”

And back out to the pool is where Stone went, he’d rather not break into the laundry room. He passed by the father, this time he was getting ice and Stone was the embarrassed one with the towels.

“Not enough in your room?”

“Ah… my date is very high maintenance.”

“Good luck, man.”

“None needed, I enjoy doting on him. Good luck with your kid.”

“He’s not… He’s not actually my kid, I’m just helping him get someplace safe. His last home wasn’t… wasn’t the best, you know?”

“Ah, in that case, thank you. I’m glad he felt safe enough with you to seek help.” Stone knew what it was like to be a runaway kid, he knew Robotnik knew the feeling as well. But Stone hadn’t had any adult he could trust when he had been that kid years ago. “There should be a home just another few hours west, run by someone named Danielle, or Daniel, safest place I know.”

Maybe he should actually visit Danny, it had been a while since Stone has checked on them and the kids there.

The… would-be social worker gave him an honest smile, and they went their separate ways yet again.

The next time the Doctor sent Stone out, he didn’t meet that man again, and he hoped he took the runaway kid to Danny’s. That was one home for runaways that would never get closed down. What with the large donation every year that Robotnik made to make sure of it.

Eventually, the Doctor stopped sending Stone out and just collapsed on the bed, half-dressed and thankfully clean. Stone tucked him into bed before doing another perimeter check and checking the time.

Once everything was done, he put the TV on low and climbed into bed with the Doctor, sitting up against the head of the bed. A moment later, the Doctor’s snoring head found its way onto his lap and Stone started idly brushing his hair while watching TV.

Every night this happened. The Doctor asleep, protected by Stone who stubbornly stayed awake the whole night.

And just like every night before, the Doctor would wake at the first hint of sunlight, taking advantage of Stone’s position to wrap his arms around his waist. At the movement, Stone would allow himself to droop, to relax, to let his eyes rest for just the barest of minutes.

And if in that serene moment, Stone fell asleep and the Doctor let him before sleeping for a little while longer?

Who was to know?

**Author's Note:**

> just wanted to say real quick, this was based on what was believed to be a deleted scene, which was Stone and Bot staying at the same motel as Tom and Sonic, with the added thought, "wouldnt it be funny if tom and stone kept missing each other?"


End file.
